The choice is ours, to serve our fear or to serve a steadfast God. From time to time, an apocalypse is a powerfully good reminder not to feed the fears.
Read MoreOn this occasion of All Saints, we are invited to be ourselves by being re-membered in the fullness of God’s love. In the church year we celebrate the coming of Christ in the incarnation on Christmas, we celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Easter, and the coming of the Spirit to the Church on Pentecost. But it is on this holy day that we remember ourselves, connected to all those that have gone before us and will come after us, each of us uniquely beloved by God and belonging to one another.
Read MoreOn All Saints’ Day, we honor the communion of saints, past, present, and yet to come. And tonight, we especially hold in our hearts our loved ones who have gone before us. The Beatitudes invite us to remember that in their lives, whenever they struggled, Jesus called them blessed. And when they found themselves in the woe column, forgetting for a moment how much they needed God, Jesus loved them then, too. That prevening grace is given to all the saints.
Read MoreLuke is deliberately redirecting our focus. He wants us to see the irony of Jesus in the place of prominence despite his modest background. He wants us to feel the discomfort of standing beneath someone we usually look down on and look up to them instead. He wants us to be aware of the bodies we often overlook.
Read MoreWhat the tax collector knew and the monks sought to learn, was that they were in deep need of God’s grace and that gift was not something they could earn or accomplish however much they fasted or how many hair shirts they wore. They meditated on their sins, not to be down on themselves, but to open up an empty vessel to be filled with God’s love.
Read MoreLuke seems to have something to say about persistence. He wants us to understand that persistence, as obnoxious as it can be, has an important place in the Kingdom of God. Jesus offers today’s parable as an illustration for his disciples about their need to pray always. If this stubborn, cold, unjust judge will eventually give in to a persistent widow, imagine how our loving and gracious God will enter into the lives of those who cry out in prayer day and night.
Read MoreAn updated letter from Jeremiah to Christ Church might go something like this: “Take care of your church buildings with a master plan and worship God in them; plant a garden on the corner of 6th and Scott and eat what it produces; build your congregation and care for one another for years to come; and, seek the welfare of downtown Little Rock and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for it is in the city’s welfare that you will find your own.”
Read MoreTo have faith like a hobbit, to have faith like a mustard seed, is to live not through the strength of our own powers, but instead to join in the energies of love. It is an obedient faith, doing what love demands in the time in which we find ourselves.
Read MoreSometimes God can do things in a big, dramatic way. But most of the time, in most of our lives, the word of God comes to us not in grand spectacles but in holy, ordinary ways. Our hearts get moved. We see that our neighbor is suffering and do something to help. We hear the word of God coming through to us in the pages of scripture. We feel God’s presence on an ordinary Sunday in September.
Read MoreThis morning, Jesus tells a parable about one of these land managers. We don’t know for certain if the manager has embezzled funds, but we know he’s been accused of it, and that was enough for his boss to fire him. But he still has to present the books to the landowner. He is at the very edge of the cycle of financial oppression, and in that moment I think the manager recognizes that a crucial choice lies before him. He can go back to the grind, find another position within the system and continue to serve the wealthy, or he can choose an altogether different way of life.
Read MoreFor the record, it’s hard to scan a hillside of 99 sheep and realize one is missing. Kudos to the keen-eyed shepherd. What about our flock? I look out at the congregation each week and think about those who have not returned. And I worry about other people who are lost, unknown to us, who have not yet heard the good news of God’s grace for them. The parable of the guy who lost his sheep asks us pretty directly, what are we going to do to go find them? How will we search out the lost?
Read MoreGod is at the wheel, gathering all those beloved lumps of clay that have been twisted and turned by a world bent toward selfishness. Like the new life God knit in the depths of the earth, God is again forming vessels of grace and wonder, ready to fill them with love to pour out into the world. Our work is to step away from all those hands that would form us otherwise, promising security, power, and affection that are not theirs to give.
Read MoreIn one short parable Jesus has laid out the view from the very end, and the mechanics of salvation. These are among the greatest gifts in the Christian message. They invite us to live our lives free from the fear of not measuring up. They invite us to live our lives already trusting in our goodness and our salvation.
Read MoreJust as newborn children are loved immediately and do not have to earn or grow into their place in a family, we come into the world already whom God intends and needs us to be. We need no other preparation to begin our work as Christ’s hands and feet because, as God tells Jeremiah, “you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.”
Read MoreWhen the task force on the state of the church concluded its report at General Convention, deputies jumped to their feet and gave their work a standing ovation. We heard an urgent call to get on with being a changing church in a changing world.
Read MoreWhether one approaches a 12th century altar in France, or one from 1941 in Little Rock, Arkansas, or even a makeshift one outside during a pandemic or in a wild church service in Allsopp Park, at each one the invisible becomes visible in the breaking of the bread.
Read MoreIt’s the 8th century BCE, the nation of Israel has divided into two kingdoms, Exile is on the horizon, and the people continue to behave badly. They show a lack of faith in God, and they consistently reject the lifestyle God invites them into. God laments this state of affairs deeply. But nothing can change God’s passionate love for Israel. Through Hosea, God proclaims, I’m going to keep you.
Read MoreAll relationships, if they are to thrive, find their way to a pattern of regular conversation. It is no different with God. Prayer, the communication that crosses the divide of human and divine life was for Jesus a conversation of ongoing relationship. And we see this in how Luke describes him. Jesus is regularly engaged in specific times and practices of prayer. But now, almost halfway through Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ students have noticed and they want some specifics. What he gives in reply is a form of prayer that, though simple, contains all the elements necessary for a life of ongoing conversation with God.
Read MoreJesus never enters a home unless invited. He never heals unless asked. When he encounters a blind man calling out on a roadside, he doesn’t immediately heal his vision. Instead, he says, “what do you want me to do for you?” In that question he acknowledges the autonomy and personhood of the one in front of him. If we want to follow Mary in following Jesus, if we want to offer our help to those we encounter in need, then we must learn to hear and listen. We have to take the time to be develop relationships with particular people who have names and stories and gifts to offer.
Read MoreAmos will not back down. He is determined to reiterate that the people are chosen not for privilege but for purpose. But because they continue to rest in their privilege and ignore the needs of others in their community, a reckoning is on its way. Salvation, Amos practically screams, is not a result of privilege. It is not even a side effect or accessory. Being chosen is not an easy or comfortable journey.
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